The EyeOpener: Whistleblowers & Activists Line Up to Take Back Obama Transparency Award

Here is an exclusive video by James Corbett with the inaugural edition of the EyeOpener, a new weekly video series produced in conjunction with Boiling Frogs Post, on Obama’s Secret Transparency Award. This news clip is a prelude to our petition, ‘Rescind Obama’s “Transparency Award” Now!,’ co-written by Coleen Rowley and me, and signed by more than 25 high-profile government whistleblowers and over 20 organizations, which will be launched tomorrow morning. We are going to need every single one of you, your signatures, your support, and your voices to get these organizations to take back the undeserved and hypocritical award. Please watch this video. Maybe watch it again. Think about it. Get angry. Share this with everyone you know. Help up disseminate this and encourage others to watch think, get angry, and take action. We are counting on you; on us.

For further information and more background on this action campaign you can read this and this.

‘a token, pushing Obama administration in the right direction’. Gary Bass. What direction was that? Toward Bradley Mannings cell? Why sneak around?
Nothing yet explains need of secrecy in Obama ‘accepting’ this award. To not even have it on the record is an insult to each and every one of you presenting it. To the concept of transparency itself.

Frankly, I could care less about any awards… really most are just nonsense. What we DO care about… what we SHOULD care about is supporting whistle blowers and truth tellers who are the courageous watch dogs from within the government exposing corruption and malfeasance. It’s almost inconceivable that a democracy would not honor and support whistle blowers.

The sad fact is that large institutions… private and government… huge bureaucratic structures are hives of corruption, nepotistic where people work their way up the pyramid of power USING THE TOOLS of corruption, favoritism, nepotism and so forth to entrench their power, feed the greed and needs of their friends and of course themselves. Power corrupts and the more power one wields the more corruption one is involved in. This is an inescapable LAW of large pyramidal top down organizational structures. And it applies to charities as well as predatory banks, corporations and government departments such as DOE or DOD or CIA and so forth… All of them.

The problem of course is simple. Most people are basically honest and trusting of the “mission” of these institutions and believe that the system weeds out the bad apples who work their way up the power ladder in them. Nothing can be further from the truth. This self correcting mechanism is a naive belief. But it does cause millions of people to work for and within these structures/organizations.. to be swept in by their fundamental belief that good triumphs over evil and when corruption and malfeasance are exposed the whistle blower will be supported. Not so! This would undermine the fabric which makes a top down power structure work. Shut up and keep your eyes on your work and mind your own effin business.

The growing list of whistle blowers… one of them was my Turkish roommate from college… come to a rude awakening about power and corruption when they seek to use the law to support their integrity. That law is a toothless tiger and essentially a bit of window dressing for a demockracy.

We need to face the fact that we have a democracy with equality and justice for all in name only. Our constitution and justice system has now been clearly shown in spades to be nothing but a fig leaf hiding a neo feudal fascist environment we call the USA.

Sibel… thank you for exposing this. We do need that and more. We need American Revolution version 2. And the sooner we get on with that… the sooner we can have accountability, justice and some equity in this society. The system is so rife with corruption that it needs to be torn down and completely rebuilt.

But it is more likely it will collapse on its accord from the results of the very corruption whistle blowers alert us to. Americans have no fight in them… except to expression their sadism on innocents in other lands who have darker skin. That they will do with relish.

@SanderO: WEll-said re: these organizations being a part, actors in, a larger scheme. Look at the primary foundations who fund all 5. With them you get: Rockefellers, Soros, Carnegie, Ford. Insiders say: the ‘ORDER’ to give Obama the award came from these foundations and their men/women on these org.s boards/executives. Possibly true. Most likely true. Too much dirt to dig up here.

Congratulations on the new series kick-off! I thought it was done pretty well, with some room for improvement.

I would suggest additionally recording your audio/video locally with a portable recorder and then transferring the file to James for production. You could get a Zoom Q3hd Video Recorder for less than $300 that has excellet audio/video quality. This could be used for the podcasts with Peter B as well.

You could also get a greenscreen for about $30, though you have a nice living room background. Maybe if it looked less web-cam-like, which is a little distracting and takes away from the professional nature of the broadcast.

As for the content, I thought Ms. Rowley put it the best, saying it was “stupid” of the NGOs to embolden the Pres to continue his offenses with the award.

@Zica: Thank you for all the suggestions; excellent suggestions. Now, I’m hoping this is the first and last video with me in it. Seriously,this is not something I am good at, or like (I am camera-shy, I have stage fright issues, I can’t sit still, and I totally dislike looking at myself-my pictures or listen to me own voice). We’ll have James Corbett, his great style, and his professional footage minus ‘me’:-)))

You did fine! C’mon, it’ll be good practice anyway. Plus, you have the power of editing or re-doing if you get flustered. And you can even green screen yourself in front of a picture of Obama and point a stick at him like your doing the weather. “This week, there will be a good chance of lies and deception coming from his mouth…”

You were great on that video. You have a future on screen! And you are a wonderful example of courage, ethics and of course intelligence. And I’ll be a super mom too! I’ll be sending you some money in a few months when I emerge from the dip I’m in.